Nat'l Park Service removes handles from water fountains

In what can only be described as an act of spite, National Park Service rangers removed the handles from all sources of drinking wateralong several popular scenic bicycle and jogging paths.

The paths, running from Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C. on the Great Allegheny Passage and C&O Canal will be closed at Cumberland, Maryland, and in an apparent effort to make it more difficult for the athletes, handles have been removed from all the well pumps along the way, according to the Cumberland Times-News.

This is just the latest example of outrageous conduct committed by the National Park Service since the government shutdown, all apparently in an effort to make Americans feel the pain. According to Catholic.org, others include:

According to a report in the Newburyport Daily News, tourists at Yellowstone National Park were actually detained under armed guard and locked in their hotels when the government shutdown started on October 1st. The paper explained that foreign tourists with poor English skills actually thought they were under arrest because of their harsh treatment.

When the tourists were allowed to leave by bus, they were forbidden to stop anywhere during the 2.5 hour drive out of the park, not even at public restrooms along the way.

In other places, park rangers have issued tickets to people who have ignored signs and barricades and threatened others with arrest.

Now it’s water? Really?

Between keeping 90 year-old veterans from viewing the World War II Memorial erected in their honor to not allowing tourists to even get a glimpse of Old Faithful when she’s erupting, the National Park Service is about to surpass the Internal Revenue Service as the most hated agency in the federal government.

UPDATE: BizPac Review received an email from Mike Nardolilli, President of the C&O Canal Trust, noting a comment he’d made to this post. Here is his comment in its entirety:

The wells along the C&O Canal, particularly those near cities and towns, need to be constantly monitored for groundwater contamination. Because the employees who performed that function have been furloughed, the decision was made to remove the pump handles in order to protect public health. Without anyone to clean and pump out the bathrooms, the decision was made to close the bathrooms for the same reason. More information about the shutdown’s impact on the C&O Canal National Historical Park can be found at: http://www.canaltrust.org/trust